Pour spouts are employed on containers to dispense various types of products, including, but not limited to, granular products (e.g., pet litter, laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent, etc.), baking supplies (e.g., flour, pancake mix, sugar, etc.), rice, cereal, dry pet food, and gun pellets. Although metal and plastic pour spouts have been applied to containers for many years, the application of such metal and plastic spouts is costly because the spouts require special and expensive application equipment and cause decreased assembly line efficiencies.
In order to reduce the costs associated with the application of pour spouts to containers, pour spouts composed of paperboard have been introduced to the marketplace in recent years. Heretofore, the effectiveness of such paperboard pour spouts has been limited by such problems as lack of durability, the absence of tactile or audible feedback indicative of positive reclosure, lack of positive recloseability, lack of size to provide adequate pouring, the inability to prevent spillage or sifting of the contents of the container in the area of the pour spout, and the inability to prevent the pour spout from being pushed too far into a package which makes opening more difficult the following time. In addition, paperboard pour spouts have been fairly costly due to their use of excessive amounts of paperboard, thereby making some designs cost prohibitive. Lastly, the location of a paperboard pour spout, especially in those applications involving narrow containers, is important since some existing paperboard pour spouts are not capable of fitting on a narrow side wall.
Accordingly, a need exists for a paperboard pour spout which overcomes the above-noted shortcomings associated with existing pour spouts.